1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for producing noodles and a method for cooking said noodles.
2. Prior Art
Conventional ready-to-eat noodles include the original fried ready-to-eat noodles and the latest ready-to-eat fresh-type noodles which can be stored for a long period of time (LL noodles). However, these noodles, even those called the `fresh-type` are prepared by subjecting fresh noodles to a heat process such as boiling, steaming, frying and drying after .alpha.-modification for long-term storage and ready-to-eat abilities. Therefore, they fail to sufficiently reproduce the mouthfeel characteristics of fresh noodles.
Recently, microwave ovens have been popularized and used not only for thawing and heating but for cooking. Since they are convenient, that is, they require shorter period of time for cooking, they are widely utilized, particularly for cooking of a small amount of materials, heating and cooking of single meals. For noodles, they have been used only for the thawing of frozen noodles and thawing and heating of frozen or chilled chow mein. As ready-to-eat fried noodles, there have been some products to be heated with hot water added to the container in a microwave oven (DENGEKI RAMEN, manufactured by Ace-Cock Co. Ltd.), which have a mouthfeel similar to those of the aforementioned heat-processed products. Therefore, development of ready-to-eat noodles having mouthfeel characteristics of ordinary fresh noodles has been expected.
Conventionally, to meet the demand to shorten the cooking time, fresh noodle products have been produced by thinning noodle strands or by adding more water, but there have not been known examples wherein such fresh noodles are contained in a container to be served, and directly cooked in a microwave oven.
Microwave ovens have been used not only for thawing and heating but for cooking. Since they are convenient, that is, they require shorter period of time for cooking, they are widely utilized, particularly for cooking of a small amount of materials, heating and cooking a plate. To provide such a use, noodles, for example, ready-to-eat fried noodles, ready-to-eat noodles, prepared by drying after applying an .alpha.-treatment, frozen noodles are commercially available. However, all of the noodles have been subjected to heat treatment, and there have been no fresh noodles known which are prepared without heat treatment and become edible by cooking with a microwave oven.
On the other hand, for production of noodles, the present inventor has proposed to add wheat protein comprising gliadin as a main ingredient (for example, JP-A-6-105662 and JP-A-7-289187). However, noodles prepared by adding gliadin to ordinary flour cannot easily become edible noodles by cooking with rapid heat (for 1 to 3 minutes), which is one of the characteristics of cooking using a microwave oven.
There are many proposals to compound modified starch (for example, JP-A-3-252147). Using a large amount of modified starch (not less than 30% by weight) attains gelatinization in a short time, but the resulting noodle strands become fragile during production and storage of the fresh noodles. To prevent such problems, there are methods wherein gluten is added, or noodle strands are allowed to become partly .alpha.-starch by heat sterilization, to improve storage stability.
Conventionally, for the production of noodles, the addition of oils and fats or emulsifiers has often been carried out to improve the quality of the noodles. However, there have been no examples known for that of fresh noodles to be cooked in a microwave oven. The purpose of adding oils and fats and emulsifiers is mainly to improve the moldability and stretchability of the noodles and to prevent drying.
Conventionally, microwave ovens have been used for thawing frozen food and heating cold food, rarely for heat-cooking. In particular, microwave ovens have been rarely used for boiling food, for example, boiling noodles.
In general, when noodles are boiled using pans or the like, boil-over can be prevented by controlling the heating power while monitoring the boiling conditions. However, when microwave ovens are used for such cooking, the output cannot be controlled by monitoring boiling conditions, which is one of the greatest disadvantages of microwave ovens. Accordingly, boiling noodles using a microwave oven may be accompanied with boil-over or the like, causing many problems, for example, a risk of scalding and contamination due to boil-over.
A seasoning for cooking in a microwave oven, "RENJI-DE-ORYORI " has been marketed from Shimaya KK. This product requires relatively large amounts of water in a bag made of a resin to boil food in a microwave oven. To prevent boil-over, the product employs a bag to maintain a big space above the surface of the hot water, the top edge of the bag being folded to prevent boil-over. Accordingly, the bag cannot be served for a meal as it is, and after cooking, another operation is required, that is, the content should be transferred to another container. Thus, such a product is disadvantageously less convenient.
Problems to be Solved by the Invention:
An object of the present invention is to provide a process for producing ready-to-eat noodles which can be conveniently cooked by heating in a microwave oven, and reproduce the mouthfeel and taste characteristics of fresh noodles, and a method for cooking such ready-to-eat noodles.
However, in the aforementioned method in which gluten is added, the products require a longer time for boiling, and a method which comprises changing a starch to partially an .alpha.-starch results in products with a mouthfeel different from that of the original noodles prepared using flour. The object of the present invention is to provide fresh noodles to be cooked in a microwave oven, said noodles having a good moldability and being cooked to have a mouthfeel of regular noodles by rapid cooking using a microwave oven.
However, the addition of not less than 0.1% by weight of oils and fats and/or emulsifiers will cause problems, for example, the noodles may become pasty extremely quickly after boiling by heating using a general gas heater, electric heater or the like.
The object of the present invention is to provide a process for producing fresh noodles to be cooked in microwave ovens which are free from the aforementioned problems and can become edible by rapid cooking using microwave ovens.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide a process for producing noodles to be conveniently cooked in a microwave oven, wherein the noodles can be safely boiled without causing boil-over by heating in a microwave oven.